Wrestling Observer Flashback–04.03.91

Previously in the Observer Flashback… http://blogofdoom.com/index.php/2016/12/07/wrestling-observer-flashback-03-18-91/

THIS IS IT! DOUBLE-SIZED SHOCKER!

Well, I mean, not THAT shocking. We mostly know what’s coming up. But what if Barry Allen went back in time and changed the past again? Sgt. Slaughter might have retained the title because Barry just had to go back and save his mom yet again! Dougie might be unbanned! I can’t live in this crazy Flashpoint universe!

– In the top story, Dave attended the Cauliflower Alley reunion dinner the night before Wrestlemania. Lou Thesz was inducted into the Hall of Fame, and yet there wasn’t a single representative from either the WWF or WCW at the show because wrestling has no interest in acknowledging its own past. (As opposed to now, when the promotion is so up its own ass about how great the old days were that you can barely go 10 minutes without someone on commentary referencing a previous era). Dave thinks they should have at least sent a telegram!

– OK, enough lollygagging at the past, it’s time for WRESTLEMANIA.

(I heard that originally this was going to be a 100,000 word issue, but suddenly got cut down to 15,000 just before publication.)

– Overall, Dave thought it was a good show, but only up until intermission. After that, it went off a cliff.

– The actual attendance was 15,500, which was 200 short of a sellout. In fairness to the WWF, the transition between arenas was so complicated that they literally had no idea how many seats to give away to fill the building until hours before the show, since 3000 tickets were unaccounted for up until the last minute.

– Despite what Gorilla said dozens of times on the show, it was nowhere near the biggest PPV of all time. In fact, at a 4% buyrate, it was the second-lowest number ever for a Wrestlemania (520,000 buys). (This number would be revised further downwards as we go.) Overall, everyone is just relieved that the show is done with and they can move on now, and they’ll take whatever number they can get. It was clearly profitable at least thanks to PPV, even though it’s a hugely disappointing number based on what they were expecting even a few months before.

1. The Rockers beat Haku & Barbarian in 10:31 when Michaels pinned Haku with a flying bodypress. The Rockers bumped like crazy to get it over. Jim Duggan was horrible on commentary. ***1/2

2. Kerry Von Erich pinned Dino Bravo with the tornado punch in 3:10. They worked as well as they could, but it was still horrible. Dave is pretty sure this is it for Bravo’s main eventing. 3/4*

3. The British Bulldog pinned Warlord with a powerslam in 8:19. Dave suspects that they’re phasing out “Davey Boy Smith” because they never mentioned it once. Very good match considering who is involved. **1/2

4. The Nasty Boys won the WWF tag titles from the Harts in 12:08 when Knobs pinned Neidhart after a helmet to the head. Apparently Bo Jackson was asked to be part of the show and turned them down, so Bobby Heenan spent the whole match taking veiled shots at him. Very well put together match. ***1/2

5. Jake Roberts pinned Rick Martel in the blindfold match at 8:43 with the DDT. Given they had to pretend to be blind, it was OK, but as a wrestling match “this would have been negative as many stars as there are in the Texas sky”. (Man, just wait until he gets to Heroes of Wrestling!) Unfortunately, they had the ring lights so bright that it was obvious both guys could see through the “blindfolds”, which kind of ruined the effect live. DUD

6. The Undertaker squashed Jimmy Snuka in 4:19 with the tombstone. Undertaker seems to be getting over more as a babyface than a heel. *

7. Ultimate Warrior pinned Randy Savage in 20:43 in the retirement match. Savage was obviously going to turn the moment he came out with a white hat, because Titan doesn’t mess around with symbolism like that. It was “one super match and an even better booked angle.” This was actually Savage’s first match back after major thumb surgery and he still all kinds of crazy shit for someone his age to get it over. ****1/4 If Savage had a real opponent here, “it would have blown the top off the star ratings system.” (That’s some quality backhanded complimenting there, Dave!) And of course Savage reunited with Liz afterwards, which had many fans at ringside legit crying with joy. Dave expects a TV wedding, plus reinstatement of Savage complete with letter-writing campaign to beef up the Christmas mailing list, and then he can return as #2 babyface in the company. Ironically, by winning this match, Warrior sets himself up to be phased out of the top spot by Savage when he returns.

From this point on, the show is OVER. No one was following that match.

8. Tenryu & Kitao beat Demolition in 4:39 when Tenryu pinned Smash after a powerbomb. This was the dreaded DOUBLE DEATH SPOT match, following both a modern classic AND the intermission. Kitao looked horrible. -1/2*

9. Big Bossman beat Mr. Perfect by DQ in 10:41. Perfect was the usual one man show but no one in the world is talented enough to overcome Andre the Giant at this point. Andre hit Perfect with the belt for a near-fall, and then everyone ran in for the sad DQ. **1/2

10. Earthquake pinned Greg Valentine in 3:15 with the splash. DUD

11. LOD beat Power & Glory in 0:59 with the Doomsday Device. This was short due to the first half running so long. DUD

12. Virgil beat Ted Dibiase by countout in 7:43. Dibiase had a tough time carrying Virgil, but Piper’s involvement made it much better. Sherri debuted as Dibiase’s manager here, and she was working so hard that her wig came off! **

13. The Mountie zapped Tito Santana in 1:19. -1/2*

14. Hulk Hogan pinned Sgt. Slaughter to win the WWF title in 20:24. The initial chase looked like a snail chasing two tortoises, but Sarge had a few good bumps early. Wasn’t bad and they went 20 minutes without it getting boring, but it was incredibly anti-climactic and predictable.

Next up: Starrcade in japan (aka the WCW/New Japan Supershow)

– Dave actually attended the show in Japan, and was amazed at the difference in atmosphere, and for instance the hundreds of young kids in the bathrooms painting their faces like Great Muta.

1. Animal Hamaguchi & Kengo Kimura & Osamu Kido & Kantaro Hoshino beat Super Strong Machine & Tatsutoshi Goto & Norio Honaga & Hiro Saito in 12:08. Good action, but the US-style heel miscommunication finish with Machine hitting Goto by accident didn’t get over well. **3/4

2. Kuniaki Kobayashi & Takayuki Iizuka & Shiro Koshinaka defeated Brian Pillman & Tom Zenk & Tim Horner in 12:10. All the Americans were trying really hard to show their stuff and get over in New Japan, but their was language problems for obvious reasons. After a bunch of hot moves and near-falls, Iizuka pinned Horner with the Dragon suplex. ***3/4

3. Scott Norton pinned the Equalizer in 2:23. Equalizer came out doing a Bruiser Brody impression and BOY did that not go over. Fans basically laughed at Equalizer, because Norton looks like what they consider to be a star (big thick sumo bodies in Japan = MANLY). Match was real bad, including Equalizer trying the Brody boot to the face and falling down. Norton won with a powerslam, and even that was screwed up. -*1/2

4. Justin Liger pinned Akira Nogami to retain the IWGP junior title in 16:08. Nogami is now a ninja who just goes by Akira. Slow start, with the fans actually chanting “Do something” as they exchanged holds, but they started firing off the highspots and it got really good. Liger won with a top rope DDT and they did the big show of respect afterwards. ***1/2

5. Arn Anderson & Barry Windham beat Masa Chono & Masa Saito in 9:17. No heat at all. Windham hit Saito with the lariat and Anderson pinned him. **

During the intermission, Jim Herd came out to do a speech, thanking New Japan on behalf of TBS and CNN. Dave SCOFFS at this, noting that they drew 65,000 people to this show and CNN still won’t touch them with a ten foot pole.

Also, Antonio Inoki came out to a Hogan-like reaction, with his dream of becoming mayor now finished. He was actually winning the popular vote among 20-30 year old men with 70%, but had no realistic chance to finish higher than third, so he pulled out of the race the next day because “it was more important to be a world leader than to run Tokyo.” So he comes off looking like a hero, and Vince McMahon himself couldn’t have executed a more masterful work. (Aside from Montreal, of course.) So Inoki, who was working out backstage, claims that he wasn’t able to work the show due to political commitments, but Black Cat attacked him at this point and Inoki was forced to defend himself and got a visual pinfall with an abdominal stretch cradle to a monster pop. Now, by absolutely ZERO coincidence, that’s the finishing move in the main event. Dave was impressed that Inoki found a way to avoid doing the job in the election.

6. Rick & Scott Steiner beat Hiro Hase & Kensuke Sasaki to become the first team in history to hold the World tag team and IWGP tag titles at the same time. People thought that Hase and Rick might try to out-stiff each other due to their amateur background, but everyone played nice. Absolutely incredible match, a match of the year candidate, with both teams beating the hell out of each other with stiff clotheslines and crazy double-teams. Scott pinned Sasaki with the Frankensteiner, which the crowd wasn’t familiar with and thus didn’t react that huge to. ****1/2

7. El Gigante pinned Curtis Hughes in 2:11 with the claw. Gigante could be a big attraction because “they don’t grow guys that size” in Japan. *

8. Big Van Vader & Bam Bam Bigelow beat Doom in 13:17. Doom agreed to work together in the pre-match promo, and they had a good, stiff match. Reed powerslammed Vader, who popped up with a clothesline and a splash to win it. And then Reed turned on Simmons again. ***1/4

9. The Great Muta pinned Sting in 11:41. Huge reactions for both guys. Exactly the same match from Bash 89, aside from a different finish, with Muta winning with the green mist and a bodypress. Sting attacked him after the match and turned himself heel in Japan. ***1/2

10. Riki Choshu knocked out Tiger Jeet Singh in 11:07 to retain the bullshit World Martial Arts title created by Inoki for his “Greatest 18 Club”. Total garbage match, with Singh using his sword to cut Choshu open and juice from both guys. *1/2 Choshu put him in a short-arm scissors afterwards, which fans remembered as the move that Inoki used to break Singh’s arm in the 70s. This leaves Dave flabbergasted at seeing someone actually get a pop for using a short-arm scissors.

11. Tatsumi Fujinami (apparently) pinned Ric Flair to (apparently) retain his IWGP title and (apparently) win the WCW World title in 23:20. The pre-match pageantry was far more impressive than the match. As soon as they introduced two referees for the match, everyone in the building knew what was going to happen. Typical Flair match, but his usual US stuff like the begging and Flair Flip didn’t get over at all, drawing mostly groans. And then fans were upset at Flair using the “drape the knee on the ropes and jump on it” spot, because that’s the Destroyer’s spot. (Man, Japanese crowds…) Anyway, the match was all action with one spot after another, but just didn’t click fully. And of course, the first ref got bumped and the Japanese ref had to make the count to give Fujinami the title. BUT WAIT! Flair had been thrown over the top rope after the ref bump, so there’s your Dusty Finish if need be. ***1/2

After the show, Jim Ross was there to film an interview with Fujinami where he’ll no doubt be stripped of the WCW World title (Oh dear lord, if ONLY it had been that simple.) but everyone in the building thought it was a legit title change, aside from those Americans in the crowd who had seen that exact finish many times before and knew where it would lead.

– Interestingly, the papers all referred to Fujinami as the “NWA World champion”, since the WCW name means nothing in Japan. (Again, if ONLY it had been that simple.) There was no hint of controversy, though. The story now goes that WCW guys complained to New Japan that the over the top rope should have been a DQ, but the Japan guys counter that it’s not a DQ in Japan, so suck it. (I’m just adding that last part.) Hilariously, Dave notes that the original plan was to do the Dusty Finish in the building, but they were fearing a riot if that happened, so instead they used the Verne Gagne Finish, which is where you put the guy over for the title in the building and then just strip him of it at a later date on a technicality.

– The newspapers were all over WCW for leaving with the belt, basically calling it bullshit.

– As Dave believes, Fujinami is recognized as champion in Japan, and Flair in the US, with the rematch coming on 5/19 on PPV. That’s nice, Dave says, but can they get Fujinami over enough to main event a PPV in seven weeks? (Answer: No. I mean, shit, they couldn’t even get STING over as a PPV draw and he’s the guy they wanted to build the company around!) Also, Dave thinks that WCW should have twisted the knife on the WWF and run this as a Clash of Champions opposite Wrestlemania, because clearly the WWF was trying to fuck with them with the house shows the night before WrestleWar and Halloween Havoc. The $10 PPV was only going to be bought by hardcore fans who are dumb enough to buy ANYTHING wrestling-related, but the Clash would have drawn 5 million viewers and probably taken a significant portion of the Wrestlemania audience away. Plus it would have been the hotter show, introducing US fans to all these crazy new moves they’re never seen before.

(I’m assuming Dave gets into the reality of the title situation right away, but what REALLY occurred was a complicated split of the NWA and WCW titles, since the two World titles were different entities at this point but no one really knew that yet. So actually Fujinami won the NWA World title, while Flair retained the WCW World title, but both were represented by the same physical belt. Which then were held by two different people.)

– You and me both, Barry.

And with that, Dave wraps it up and promises to get back to all the other news next week.